I need be honest, sometimes I don’t love having puzzles in centers. They tend to get dumped and discarded and mixed up with other puzzles. And then mixed up with other toys. And then the next thing you know letters c and j are missing completely only to be found a few days later in the dramatic play center. Apparently, someone had made some alphabet soup and left some leftovers in the toy kitchen.

Really, that’s not all bad, but you get what I mean.

Sometimes puzzles tend to be more of a mess making opportunity than a learning opportunity. (Although props to the student who made alphabet soup!)

So, if I’m being totally and completely honest, sometimes the puzzles get packed up for a month or so before I have the bandwidth for the mess again.

But, not the alphabet puzzle. It always stays out. Because you just can’t put away a learning tool as classic as an alphabet puzzle. Especially if you can use that one single puzzle to teach the alphabet in five different ways!

That’s right. With a single alphabet puzzle, you have at your fingertips five different preschool alphabet activities. And that’s a great thing, because, like I said, when you teach preschool you teach a lot of letter activities!

5 New Preschool Alphabet Activities to do with One Puzzle

Teach Location Words

Learning location words is actually a component in the algebraic math discipline. Using location words to help your preschooler put together an alphabet puzzle is a great way to work on those math skills while also working on early literacy skills. So try using location (sometimes referred to as positional) words to describe where the pieces should go.

Select a letter and then describe where that piece might fit into the puzzle.

“B goes in the top row. Can you find where B fits in the top row of your puzzle?”

Or describe where letters go according to the location of other letters your child is very familiar with. “It goes next to J. Can you find J? Letter I will go right next to it.”

They can match toys with beginning sounds or, if you don’t mind the mess, even use them as stamps by dipping them in paint! You can even add them to a sensory bin.

Trouble Shooting your Pain Points

Often times, whole alphabet activities can be really overwhelming to children. Looking at twenty-six letters scattered about can be discouraging. If you have an alphabet puzzle that has both upper and lower case, then the task can be even more overwhelming.

Preschool alphabet activities like these help your preschooler feel more confident in their letter skills. It takes a very large task and breaks it down into manageable and fun parts. Then soon your preschoolers won’t be just dumping the puzzle and scattering the pieces about on the floor. Because they will have the skills to use the learning tools more effectively.

Looking for More Preschool Alphabet Activities?

These make differentiated teaching so easy! They are a great way to teach and reinforce letter identification, letter discrimination, and beginning sounds. But best of all, this you will get 12 different puzzle sets, each set designed to target specific early literacy skills. Click the image below for more information.

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I am Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home mama of five! I am the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught range of levels, including preschool and college, and a little bit of just about everything in between. Right now, my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction

Comments

Hi! These are awesome ideas! I love this post! I also love the name of your blog. I too am now a stay at home educator, investing my teaching experience into my own children. Thanks for sharing your awesome ideas!
Trinahttp://www.teachingmyblessings.blogspot.com

These are awesome ideas!! thanks for sharing! I love the name of your blog. I too am now at stay at home educator using my teaching experience with my own children now.
Trinahttp://teachingmyblessings.blogspot.com/

In my classroom we put a letter puzzle together as a group. Each child comes up and either finds the first letter of their name or a letter I put on the board. Later I the year we find the first letter of our last name and I just call out their letter! They love finishing it together and it never seems to get old!
Thanks for all your ideas.
Jacque